


Conjecture

by corvidry



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-28
Updated: 2020-07-28
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:42:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25579780
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/corvidry/pseuds/corvidry
Summary: “I heard there’s fire in the sky,” said Grillby, “On the surface, I  mean. Enough to brighten the whole world.”Sans gave a snort at that.  Bullshit. No way.
Relationships: Grillby/Sans (Undertale)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 53





	Conjecture

“I heard rain is scarier on the surface…”

Grillby’s voice came smooth but soft, almost hesitant to break the comfortable silence that had stretched between them. Admittedly Sans never thought of rain as scary, but he supposed to a fire elemental it must be. As much as the skeleton tried to take the idea to heart, the gentle patter of raindrops on the roof above served only to relax him. 

“What’s scarier about it?” Sans asked after a beat. Wet could be kind of nice when it didn’t sting, so he made little progress on the idea. Grillby sparked at the edge of a toothpick, pressing idly with smoldering fingers against the tip. He seemed to gather his words carefully, having never experienced the event for himself.

“You know, it’s sort of…loud? Comes down faster from the sky than it does dripping into the underground.”

Sans made an agreeable sound. That made sense. Rain was almost never tumultuous down here. The only reason the two of them weren’t walking home right now was because of how utterly averse Grillby was to even the tiniest gentlest drop. Sure, they would probably be fine with just an umbrella, but better safe than cinders, right?

It was unclear to Sans if the Grillby had seen the surface. He was old, definitely old enough to have fought in the war, but he never really talked about that stuff in absolute terms, instead idling about it regularly. The topic came up between them often, often enough that Sans felt like his friend might know more than he was letting on. Whether that was true or not, Grillby was always eager to tell Sans what he’d “heard” about the surface, taking keen interest in what Sans might theorize about it in return.

“I wonder what that’s like,” Sans replied after a long moment. “The sky I mean, not the rain.” The elemental flickered at the thought of moisture but relaxed when Sans explained. He crackled aloud, seeming to wonder as well in response. 

“Heard it’s blue,” He said after a moment, “Like water.”

“Blue?” Sans asked. “Water’s like, black, though.”

The bartender gave a nod.

“Down here it is,” he agreed. “But that’s because water mimics whatever it’s looking at. When I look at water it turns sort of orange.”

“In that case,” Sans suggested, “the water up there must be blue because it’s lookin’ at the sky. Guess it’s able to see better up there.”

Grillby nodded in a way that told Sans he had a theory about this, too.

“I heard there’s fire in the sky,” said Grillby, “Enough to brighten the whole world. That’s how the water can see so well.”

Sans gave a snort at that. 

Bullshit. No way.

“That one has to be made up,” chuckled Sans with an amused eye roll. Obviously. Sans knew from experience that fire didn’t fly in the sky, it walked on the ground and gave him ketchup packets on its smoke break. The image was simply too absurd. If there was any sky fire, it was probably a hanging lamp at best.

Grillby stifled a laugh, earning a pleased grin from the skeleton before they fell back into comfortable silence. Sans couldn’t help but wonder how big a fire would have to be to light the whole world. How big was the whole world anyway? Sans estimated that it couldn’t be too much bigger than the underground, but it was hard to say. He’d lived in the same cramped universe his whole life. Dark as the underground was, he’d made all of his brightest memories there.

Grillby meanwhile seemed to put this out of his mind, moving on to kindle the edges of a paper plate that once housed a meal for Sans. It was hard to tell if Grillby’s sudden inclination toward burning was due to boredom waiting for the rain to stop or from some hunger that the elemental felt Sans didn’t bother to ask.

“If they do got a fire up there,” he said after a moment, “you oughta go and put it out of a job.”

The bartender scoffed good naturedly in response. 

“I already have a job. The place I need to light up is right here.” He finished off the plate, burning a little brighter as he turned to Sans.

“But what about you? Think you’ll ever make it up there some day?”

Skeletal fingers drummed against the bar. He gave it a brief moment of serious thought before replying at once with certainty.

“Nah.” The answer seemed to surprise Grillby.

“You’re right,” Sans told him, gesturing around the bar. “All the brightest stuff is down here anyway.”

**Author's Note:**

> Another repub of old requested work. The prompt was "rain" and this one's about a year old.
> 
> My man Grillbo Swaggins knows all about the surface and just pretends not to because he likes hearing what wild takes younger monsters come up with, change my mind.


End file.
